In the previous Mystery History post Lake Monsters and Myths - Lake Baikal we looked at the incredible history of Lake Baikal in Russia and delved into it's legends of mythical creatures, strange phenomena and unusual occurrences.
Today we move across the globe to North America to take a look at 'Bessie' a mythical creature said to reside in the waters of Lake Erie. A huge snake like creature said to be 30-40ft in length that has been reported many times since its first sighting in 1793.
What evidence if any is there to substantiate the claims? One claim has involved an alleged attack by 'Bessie' on fishermen, is there any evidence of this event actually occurring?
Join me for a delve into the not so deep waters of Lake Erie. in.....
Mystery History - Lake Monsters and Myths.
Lake Erie - USA/Canada.
Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes with the average depth being just 63ft (19m). The surface area is 9990 square miles with a length of 241 miles and a breadth of 57 miles at the widest point.
The Lake borders the US states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan as well as the Canadian Province of Ontario. According to Wikipedia the Lake was named by the Erie people who were a Native American tribe living on its southern shores. The tribal name 'Erie' is a shortened form the Iroquoian word erielhonan meaning 'long tail'.
Lets dive into this article found at Cryptid Wiki and look at the background of the 'Bessie' story......
One of Lake Erie's most iconic figures is Bessie, or South Bay Bessie. Bessie has been spotted in the lake from Canada to Pennsylvania. Bessie is a name given to an alleged lake monster in Lake Erie, also known as "South Bay Bessie". The first recorded sighting of Bessie occurred in 1793, and more sightings have occurred intermittently and in greater frequency in the last three decades. Bessie is reported to be snake-like and 9–12 m (30–40 ft) long, at least a foot in diameter, with a grayish color. While shooting at ducks north of Sandusky Ohio in 1793, the captain of the sloop Felicity startled a large snake necked creature described as “more than a rod (16 ½ ft.) in length” July 1817, the crew of a schooner reported a 30 to 40-foot long serpent, dark in colour. Later that year, another boat crew spotted a similar animal, this time copper-coloured and 60 feet in length. This time, they shot at it with muskets, which had no visible effect.
A third 1817 incident took place near Toledo, when French settlers—two brothers named Dusseau—encountered a huge monster on the beach, writhing in what they took to be its death throes.
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The brothers described it as between 20 and 30 feet in length and shaped like a large sturgeon, except that it had arms. The panicked brothers fled the scene, and when they returned later, the creature had disappeared, presumably carried off by waves after its death. All that was left of its presence were marks on the beach and a number of silver scales about the size of silver dollars. An extraordinary sighting took place by the entire crew of a ship bound from Buffalo NY to Toledo Ohio in July 1892, which was carried by local newspapers. The crew (including captain) saw a large area of water approx. one half mile ahead of them churned up and foaming. As they approached they saw “a huge sea serpent” that appeared to be “wrestling about in the waters, as if fighting with an unseen foe.”
They observed as the creature relaxed itself and stretched out full length (estimated at 50 ft and 4 ft in circumference) with its head sticking up above the water an additional 4 ft. The brownish creature’s eyes were described as “viciously sparkling” and large fins were also noted. Crystal Beach near Fort Erie was the scene of another sighting on May 5, 1896. This time there were four eyewitnesses who watched for 45 mins. as a 30 ft. creature with a dog shaped head and pointy tail churned up the water as it swam about until finally disappearing before nightfall. A reward of $100,000 has been offered by Huron Lagoons Marina for the capture of Bessie, dead or alive.
It saddens me when you see the 'dead or alive' tag here. Why would you kill something that has the potential to be an undocumented species? Surely encouraging a live catch is better for scientific and indeed moral purposes. I'm fairly sure you can learn more from studying a live creature than you can from an autopsy!
What is interesting however in regards to the early sightings is the fact that you have multiple witnesses, whole crews of ships testifying to the alleged events, local newspaper reporters/editors must have been convinced of the authenticity of the stories to go to print, although it's said never to believe anything you read in the newspapers so maybe it was a slow news day!
Moving on.....
Early Sightings.
Bessie first earned the name "Bessie" in a Pennsylvanian newsletter of Creature Cronicals in 1991. The editor had reports of a serpentine monster in Lake Erie, and the article considered of sightings that took place 30 years earlier. Bessie was described as a 30-50 foot long reptile as round as a bowling ball, and with a long snake like neck. The sightings recorded in the article contained a sighting from 1960, 1969, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1990. These sightings are listed below.
1960
During 1960, Ken Golic was fishing off a pier in Sandusky, when he heard two rats. He threw rocks at the sound, and then saw a large creature rise from the water. He stated the the creature was cigar shaped, and measured 1 to two feet wide, when it pushed itself out of the lake with its four flippers, then rested on a nearby beach. This occurred at 11:00 in the morning on a clear calm night.
1969
During 1969, Jim Schinder stated that a serpent came withing six feet of him near the South Bass Island in Lake Erie, He did not say how long the creature was, just that it was two feet wide.
1981
In 1981, Theresa Kovach of Akron saw a snake like reptile with flippers. She stated that it was "it was so large (it) could (have) easily capsized a boat. It seemed to be playing."
1983
Mary M. Landoll told John Scaffener about an encounter with Bessie. In the lake she saw a rowing sound, and saw what looked like a capsized boat. It was greenish brown colored, and about 40 to 50 feet long. Landoll realised it wasn't a boat, but an animal of some sort. It had a long neck, and its eye was visible from the side.
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1985
Tony Schill of Akron Ohio saw a giant serpent when he was boating. It was dark brown and had a long tail. Tony stated that five humps same out of the water and that "No way it was a sturgeon." A friend was also boating with Tony, and he came face to face with the creature, and that it had five humps and was black colored. He reported the the creature was twice the size of his boat.
1989
Gail Kasner obtains a graph a boat owned from his friend. The fish finder had a sonar reading of a large cigar shaped apparition 30 feet large.
1990
During 1990, four reports of Bessie occurred. Bob Soracco was Jet Skiing in Erie, when he saw a porpoise or whale in the lake. However, porpoises and whales can't live in fresh water. Bob said that he recognized an aquatic air breather when he saw one, and that the creature had humps and cray spots. "It was very long..." he stated. Another sighting that occurred during this year was when they said it was 35 feet long, and had a snake like head. Two other sightings occurred during the same year.
Below is a picture of a Sturgeon caught in British Colombia, if you saw this in the water how would you describe it? This one has a 'pig nose' from an injury and could be considered 'snake like' in appearance? I'm just playing devils advocate here as I would imagine that if you came across a bigger version of this specimen while you were jet skiing you'd have no problem assuming you were encountering a monster.
Recent Sightings.
In 1995, in Pennsylvania's largest lake, reports of a unknown creature began. The maximum depth varies depending on the part of the lake and ranges from 1,300 ft to 490 ft. Lake Erie has no outlets and is strongly alkaline (pH 9.7–9.8) being fed by rain water and small streams flowing from the surrounding mountains.
The reports started in 1995, but didn’t really get any big attention until 1997, when a video of the creature and blurry photos were taken and even prompted a CNN.com article, published June 12th 1997. The creature is said to be about 30-50 feet in length and appears similar to a Plesiosaur or Ichthyosaurus, marine reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs.
Quite a few sightings of what appears to be a fairly large creature, I doubt very much that all of these sightings were of the same creature as to assume there is only one is preposterous, if there is indeed a yet undocumented species living in Lake Erie then there would have to be at least a small colony.
But a small colony of what? Is it beyond possibility that a prehistoric creature thought long extinct could be alive and well and living in Lake Erie? The scientific community would have us believe that it is not possible however science is proven wrong all the time so I wouldn't rule it out however improbable.
This story from Crytopia.us tells us of another weird set of attacks reported on the lake.
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Artists rendition.
Since August of 2001, an unknown aquatic predator has been savagely attacking swimmers off the icy shores of Pump House beach near Port Dover, Ontario.
Late in the summer of 2001, terror gripped Lake Erie’s coastline communities when, in a span of less than 24 hours, no less than three people (all of whom were unlucky — or flat out foolish — enough to have taken a dip off the Pump House beach) were bitten by a relatively large, razor toothed, unidentified creature.
The animal’s first victim, 47 year-old Brenda McCormack, had slipped into the water for a sunset swim when she felt what she described as a large “chomp” on the side of her right calf. The horrified McCormack hastily thrashed through the murky Lake Erie waters toward the shore. Once on dry land she discovered a six-inch series of circular puncture wounds — in the shape of a jaw — embedded in her calf muscle.
The following morning an unnamed man and his son were assailed in the same location (presumably by the same animal) after which they were swiftly rushed to the nearest medical facility. The child required hospitalization for his injuries.
It wasn’t long before a plethora of rumors began to spread through Port Dover and its neighboring communities regarding the source of these vicious attacks. Wildly speculative theories ran the gamut from a rogue school of piranhas, which were released into the wild after they grew too big for their owner’s aquarium, to a juvenile BESSIE, which may have been swimming closer to shore in search of human prey. Patricia Hall, the nurse who treated McCormack, had this to say:
“It’s the Lake Erie monster. That’s what people are joking about.
Other researchers have suggest that the beasts taking a bite out of swimmers in Lake Erie may be similar to the eel-like cryptids such as CRESSIE and OLD GREENY, which haunt Newfoundland’s Crescent Lake and Central New York’s Cayuga Lake respectively.
You wouldn't want to go skinny dipping with this thing swimming around!
On August 13, 2001, the Ottawa Citizen published one of the first reports regarding these events. In that account the doctor who treated the victims of this creature admitted that he was at a loss as to the identity of this mystery attacker:
PORT DOVER – Dr. Harold Hynscht has a medical mystery on his hands. He treated three patients recently who suffered major bites on their legs after swimming in Lake Erie beside the Port Dover pump house. All were in about a meter of water when the attacks occurred. Hynscht, a diver with extensive knowledge of aquatic life, is at a loss to identify the animal that caused them. The bites were not minor. Six inches separated the wounds inflicted by the top and bottom teeth, suggesting the animal has a large mouth. ‘That’s a big, honking fish,’ Hynscht said.
The doctor has ruled out round gobies, lamprey eels, snapping turtles, walleye and other muskellunge-type fish as well as piranhas. The only species that seems plausible, Hynscht said, is the bowfin, a primitive, aggressive fish that protect their nests up to nine weeks after spawning.
One of the consistent elements of the stories I’ve heard is that it happened so fast they hardly had time to react,” Hynscht said. “Whatever is doing this is doing so because of territory. It’s not doing this because it’s hungry. Hynscht is trading information and theories with a wildlife biologist in Toronto in an effort to determine the attacker’s identity.”
Whatever this creature turns out to be, the aggressive nature of the animal in question puts it into direct conflict with the human race… and that can only mean trouble ahead.
Fairly safe to say that this series of attacks was most likely a very territorial fish rather than a prehistoric leviathan stalking the shores of Lake Erie. Although I do find it interesting that this story fed into the 'monster'myths of two other areas in North America the so called monsters being Cressie and Old Greeny.
Hmm, Nessie, Bessie & now Cressie!?
Anyone else seeing a pattern here? The story of the Loch Ness monster (Nessie) is so well ingrained in popular culture around the western world it seems that creating a name ending in 'essie' is considered the done thing when reporting upon a 'Lake Monster'.
To be fair though, most don't have names ending in 'essie' as you can see in this list of reported lake monsters from around the world. It amazing how many similar 'serpent like' creatures have been spotted throughout history all over the world.
And for those of you in the USA/CANADA, take a look at the following graphic, it appears to me that almost every lake of significance has a monster story to tell!
Final Thoughts.
In the digital age we live in almost everyone carries a mobile phone capable of digital quality photographs and video, although I am yet to see a convincing image or film of a 'lake monster'. Yes you can trawl the Internet and YouTube and find quite a few of both, none of which are convincing. Many of the lake areas listed earlier actively promote their 'monsters' in tourist literature now in the same way Loch Ness has done for a long time. Sadly I think this tactic has lessened the importance of active and thorough research into the possibility that some of these lakes may well contain species yet to be discovered or indeed a species thought long extinct.
What ever the truth is I believe in having an open mind. This and the previous post have only scratched the surface of this subject, there are many lakes dotted around the world that warrant decent research. Lake Baikal and Lake Erie are just two I picked out of the dozens that interested me, do you believe there is a chance that in one of these lakes there is a genuine monster lurking, a throwback to a forgotten period of world history. Or is every story, sighting and account bogus?
I find that hard to believe.
I sent you.